"Pete and his crew did an excellent job for us, painting two large cabinets. They were on time, very professional, and very friendly (they are huge animal lovers and treated our cat superbly). They even touched up some other paint places that they were not hired to do, and answered any questions that we had about painting and other things related to the house. I definitely will hire them whenever I have any painting needs."
Complimentary colors are not the end all of choosing paint colors. A popular trend these days is the utilization of adjacent colors on the color wheel for accents and multi-toned surfaces. While some color enthusiasts suggest the use of up to 5 colors (and by some we mean very few), it’s not uncommon for 2 adjacent colors to be chosen for a single wall. The way you would choose this is by picking the color you want to be primary on your wall, and go either left or right on the same value ring. Exceptions do exist here, however. You should avoid going from purple to red because, despite the fact that this is a ‘wheel,’ it actually represents the visible portion of the spectrum of light that we can see.
Interior house painting costs are calculated on a few key factors. Nationally, interior house painting projects range from $200 to $2,500. The wide price range indicates how much square footage, paint selection and labor can affect cost. One pro uses a laser to measure each room, subtracting the size of the doors and windows, and then bases the quote on the square footage of the actual surfaces to be painted. Painters may provide you with savings if you opt to paint your entire home rather than just having one room or an accent wall painted. For example, the average house painting cost for an 8x12 room with 8-foot ceilings is roughly $200, when contractor-grade paint is used. Painting ceilings, baseboards and frames can also affect cost. Pros may charge per linear foot to smooth and paint baseboards. In one area pros might charge 50 cents per linear foot to paint baseboards, while pros in another part of the country could charge $1.50 per linear foot for the same task. Painters may charge flat rates for painting door and window frames, with one charging $20-$25 and another $60 per door. Geography and regional costs to do business play a major role in the cost of interior painting. The same painter in a rural region has less to pay in taxes, transportation, insurance and overhead than they would in a major city like New York.
Sanding not only feathers out chipped paint but also provides "tooth" for the next coat of paint. For glossy trim, use a sanding sponge rather than sandpaper. Sponges mold to the shape of the trim and last longer than paper. When applying latex over alkyd paint or when he is not sure of the original finish, Brian Doherty, a painter in Richmond, Virginia, follows the hand-sanding with liquid sandpaper to make sure the surface is completely deglossed to prevent incompatibility problems. "I've seen homes where latex was used on oil-painted trim, and the paint started to peel in less than a year," says Doherty.
I do not mean to come off with an edge, however, this is an article for people hiring low bid, uninsured, one man band painters out to "hustle" a buck. Hire reputable, established companies or hire someone you know or have a strong referral from. If you are arguing over watered down paint, ticky, tacky deposits, buying your own supplies, you have hired the wrong guy.
Yellow is generally a happy color that increases confidence. Similar to gray, yellow can be very versatile. Pale yellows used in sunlit rooms with flowery decorations are very inviting, especially in the morning time. Darker yellows can add warmth to a room even in the winter time. Bright yellows help reduce the amount of illumination needed in a space and are ideal for any room in the house.
If you plan to hire a professional painter (plus crew), you should expect to shell out a few hundred dollars for the average 10×12 room. Depending on your area, this could exclude the price of certain materials. So for a four bedroom house, getting each bedroom painted + the cost of larger common areas (if you’re going for a full repaint) can really add up.
Your small bedroom doesn't need an elaborate color scheme to be romantic. The most appealing bedrooms are most often decorated in neutral colors. For a small space, a light neutral makes the room feel spacious and luxurious. Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Home Carter Crème is a wonderful choice for a romantic bedroom because it gives you so many options to accessorize with color.
Some proposals simply say to paint the walls and ceiling and never specify the number of coats to be applied. If the colors are similar enough, it's possible to get away with one coat of paint and not discount your pricing. No matter how hard you try, tiny, pin-sized air holes will pop exposing the original walls. This may not bother you if you can't notice it, but principally speaking you should have paid your painter less for the work.

Freshly painted walls often look blotchy. The color is uniform, but the sheen isn’t consistent. This usually occurs over the holes and cracks you patched with a filler or drywall compound. The porous fillers absorb the paint, dulling the surface (a problem called “flashing”). When light hits these dull spots, they stick out like a sore thumb. The smooth patch also stands out in contrast to the slightly bumpy texture of the rest of the wall. A quick coat of primer is all it takes to eliminate ﬂashing and texture differences.

Prep the house. Wash the walls, remove wallpaper, patch, spackle, seal stains, dry and sand before you attempt to paint. Now is also the time to apply painters tape for trimming, lay drop cloths, etc. Remove all outlet and light switch face plates, collecting screws in a zip-top bag (good opportunity to wash the face plates all at once as well). You can also buy your paint at this time. Don't wait until the last minute. It can take hours to mix many gallons of all your colors. Remember that traffic triples at your home-supply and hardware stores on weekends. Buy on a weekday if possible.
Forget the stepladder and get yourself a telescoping extension pole for your paint roller. Extension poles come in various lengths, up to 18 feet long, but one that extends from 18 to 36 inches is good enough to paint rooms with 8- to 9-foot-tall ceilings. Check that your paint roller's handle has a threaded hole in the end, then simply twist it onto the extension pole.
The best home office feels like a retreat from your household responsibilities while maintaining a professional vibe. Using a rich neutral color for your home office is both relaxing and business-like. In a small home office, light neutral colors with lots of white trim and natural lighting can give the space an expansive look and improve your productivity.
The chief difference between a $50 premium paint and a superpremium one that costs twice as much is the type and amount of pigments. These finely ground minerals comprise up to 70 percent of the paint's weight, compared with about 30 percent for an ordinary premium brand. Lift a can from Fine Paints of Europe or Farrow & Ball and you can feel the extra heft of the pigments. The pay­off: more vivid colors, fewer coats, and a longer-wearing finish.
Dave, you said it best! Every pro painting contractor truly worth their salt would and should cut and paste exactly what you say here about where customary and legitimate practices and expectations should be in regards to what customers should expect from contractors and how contractors should professionally deal with their customers. By the way, Dave, if you work in the Atlanta area, I would like to hire you! Thank you for your valuable advice!
I hired this person because he was listed on Angie's List. This man claimed he took and passed his contractor's license test after he signed me up for a project (Feb.) that included fixing cracks, painting, repairing a gate, installing a screen door, etc. He said he would charge me the original "handyman" prices. He postponed the start date, brought one worker who fixed a few cracks, repainted the gate terribly, but ruined a dining room ceiling when his worker used silicone in a tube instead of the expansion tape, spray ceiling covering, and paint I had purchased saying this silicone was "better". Then they said they would have to paint the whole ceiling and charge extra. They left holes in the walls and did a sloppy paint job in several places. I just paid them to get them out of my home as I felt intimidated as a senior citizen who is handicapped. I will try to have the main guy come back when I let him know what I need redone. Don't know if he will come back without charging me more.
We had the exterior of our house painted by Warline Painting last week and I couldn't be more impressed. Everyone we dealt with was so professional and accommodating. It nice to see when a company's moto is "Better Painters" they really mean it. I couldn't be happier and they provided really good value. Every night when I arrive home from work I look at the house and say to myself wow, the house sure looks good, that is a quality paint job. Thank-you Warline, I would highly recommend your services.

Looking to revitalize your home interior? One of the simplest and most profound ways to transform how a room feels is to change the color – best part is, it can be done in a weekend! But it’s easy to forget little details about painting rooms, especially if you keep a day job doing that is anything but being a professional painter. So before you bust out the brushes, head down to your local home improvement store, or think about hiring the pros, go through this article to find some of the costs & considerations of painting your home interior.

A good paintbrush is key to a professional-looking finish. "A quality brush costs $15 to $25, but you'll discover that pros aren't as talented as you thought," says Doherty. "The equipment has a lot to do with their success." Most of our pros prefer natural-bristle brushes for oil-based paints, but they recommend synthetics for all-around use. When choosing a brush, pay attention to the bristles. Synthetic brushes are made of nylon or polyester, or a combination of the two. Poly bristles are stiffer, which makes them good for exterior or textured work, but for fine interior work, Doherty uses softer nylon brushes. Look also for tapered bristles, which can help you work to an edge, and flagged tips, which help spread the finish smoothly and evenly. Brushes are available in 1- to 4-inch widths. Most painters keep an arsenal on hand to match the job. "Use common sense," says Maceyunas. "A smaller brush gives you more control, but no one wants to paint a door with a 1-inch-wide brush." Doherty recommends starting with a 2- or 2-1/2-inch sash brush. The angled brush makes it easier to cut to a line and puts more bristles on the work than a square-tipped brush.
We've heard countless stories of people who have been let down by other house painting services. No one wants to take valuable time off of work to wait for painters who never show up. At Handy, we pride ourselves on connecting our customers with reliable and trustworthy residential house painters. They will arrive on time, fully ready to do your job.

We don’t believe in handing our customer a roll of tape and asking them to check for deficiencies. That’s our job and we take it seriously. Our quality control is ongoing and done through every step of the project. Our interior painters are constantly checking their own work and our team leaders conduct a full inspection of the job when it’s completed. Our layers of quality control and inspections mean that when we are done, and you do a final walk through, the only thing you should be seeing is a beautiful paint job.

Most of us can do an okay job of painting a room. But a seasoned professional does a great job. Obviously, pros have more experience than the average homeowner, but they also know techniques and tricks that make them better painters. We asked six pro painters to share those secrets. They probably kept a few tips to themselves, but they provided us with more than enough to help you work more efficiently and get better results. Some of what you'll read may surprise you. For instance, their secrets won't cut painting time. Painters spend two to four days on an average-size room. That's how long it takes to prep, prime and paint correctly. It's more work, but when you stand back to admire the results, you'll agree it's time well spent.
Safest way to ensure that everything is fair is to get it ALL in writing , signed by both parties. Specify each item that needs repair. Also, BUY the paint YOURSELF. That way, there is no incentive to water it down, and you KNOW that you are getting the grade/quality you actually purchased. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish; if you are paying to hire a painter, buy the best paint that you can afford, to ensure maximum life of this home improvement.
Most painting companies, including our own, do not price our work on an hourly basis. We can work this way and do on complicated projects. But to give you a good idea of what the hourly rates tend to be, these range from $45-60 a man/hr. Then you have to factor in the cost of materials. This tends to range from 10-20% of the cost of the job depending on the level of quality.
I did go with the highest bidder and it did not matter. They did a shoddy job and threatened to take me to court when I pointed out mistakes that they made based on their work standards stated on the quote. I have not paid them yet, just filed a complaint with the BBB. No money down asked, no contract signed. The boss stated I have to high of expectations just because I live in a 121 year old house!
I turn away any job when the client refuses to pay anything up front. It sends a red flag. I also charge a scheduling fee which is non-refundable. I get 33 percent when I show up and begin work. Another percentage halfway through, and the balance upon completion after client is satisfied. There needs to be skin in the game for both parties as a measure of good faith. If you are dealing with a reputable company (did your due diligence, right?) why wouldn't you want to pay something as work progresses? We do this not only because we love to paint but we require cash flow to stay in business. There is not always 'money in the bank' as you suggest. It's tough these days. The suggestion buy 'Kim' 'Never pay a contractor a deposit' is nonsensical.
Nothing is more discouraging when you've finished painting than to peel tape off the woodwork and discover the paint bled through. To avoid the pain-in-the-neck chore of scraping off the paint, do a thorough job of adhering the tape before you start. "Apply tape over the wood, then run a putty knife over the top to press down the tape for a good seal," a painter with more than 16 years of experience says. "That'll stop any paint bleeds."
Before the project began, Warren walked through the home with myself and the paint foreman and ensured we were all on the same page, the crew worked around our schedule and did an amazing job. The estimate and the final bill were exactly the same, they ensured we were 100% satisfied. Great experience and plan on having them back to finish painting the remaining rooms and the exterior of our home when the time comes. Customer and Quality are their top priorities.

Warline Painting is a one-of-a-kind company. Heidi Nyline is an expert in specifying beautiful exterior and interior colors - she is always spot-on! This is the only paint company I know of with the design expertise built right in. If you are looking for painters who go above and beyond to deliver quality and attention-to-detail, hire Warline for your next project!

With that said, here's the reality of that particular scenario. Painters do put water in the paint, but not for reasons you would think. Some materials need to have their viscosity manipulated in order to slow drying time, allowing gravity to 'smooth' out the product for a better finish. It also prevents 'drags' and 'sausages'. I personally try not to do it too often, but from time to time I have to. I want my client to have a proper finish.
You are right on with this - why do people leave switch plates on when it's just so easy to take them off? Another thing that happened to us - we had the popcorn ceiling taken off and the ceiling painted white. When the job was done and I later went to change out all the fixtures/fans, they had left every fixture in place, so there was a large patch of popcorn and unpainted ceiling left behind - it just didn't dawn on me to specify that they take those down before scraping and painting. It was kind of a mess.

The national average cost for an interior painter ranges between $450 and $900. Interior painters can tackle everything from complete color makeovers in each of your rooms to touching up an accent wall to painting pieces of furniture. The square footage and complexity of the project, along with the materials needed, are the main factors that will affect cost. Other factors include whether you supply the paint yourself or want the painter to do so, whether you move the furniture and do the prep work or ask them to do it, and whether any repair work is needed on the walls. Painting the ceiling and the trim will also have an effect on cost. The type of paint you choose can also raise or lower your house painting cost. A gallon of paint may range from $20 to over $100, depending on quality and brand. Ask your painter if they charge per hour or per square foot, and how much you can save by doing prep work (moving furniture, etc.) yourself.

While black is usually associated with somberness and malignity, it can also represent sophistication, reverence and physical attraction. Interior designers have traditionally shunned black paint, but homeowners increasingly choose it for trim and accents that are meant to be dramatic and striking. Black is the perfect match and contrast for white, and the amount used can range from trim areas to an accent wall. With the right furniture and décor, black is ideal for living rooms, bedrooms and ultra-modern kitchens.
To industrial and institutional. I also own and operate a professional painting company of elite painters ONLY 5 ELITE PAINTERS, and pay them good money for being elite. Less is better in my opinion.The fact is this a homeowner and a painting company owner can both be taken advantage of by hustlers and liars and amateurs posing as pros. I have had many laborers tell me they can paint. " Oh yes sir I can paint, I'm a painter of 8 years. Yes sir I can cut a straight line." Some people will say and do anything to get a buck. If yoir on the job to see their rookie mistakes you may have time to save your reputation before disaster ensues and fire them on the spot. As a painting Company owner if your not on the job with your crew at least 3 out of 6 days every week your taking a huge risk of damaging your reputation and losing the respect of your team. Homeowners want to deal with you or the crew boss (jobs site supervisor) not "the painter". Many things I have read are right on. Painters for the most part will milk a clock for all they can and still do a good job. But amateurs will leave your projects in shambles and the only ones to pay for it is the contractor and the homeowners. But an elite painter and crew will try to complete a project as quickly as possible and move on to the next one. They understand bonuses, incentives, and promotions. My company provides the opportunity for a homeowner to meet each member of the crew and shake there hand on day one. There is also a differentiation between the crew boss and the crew by the uniforms they wear. Should the homeowners have any issue at all they know exactly who to go to to get results. This eliminates the age old problem of who screwed up? I have found that by me putting on my whites and giving my crew the opportunity to out do themselves on each project it ignites competition, pride in skill, and excellent commraderie amongst the team. We all hold each other accountable. Choose your contractor by the crew not the owner. The crew is a direct reflection of the Company owner. No room for rookies on fine finish painting. Go pro for painting and you won't regret it. With that being said homeowners should always remember that you get what you pay for. With paint and services. In most cases it will be well worth a few extra bucks to get elite results. Never go with the cheapest bid there is always a reason why it's so low.
WOW! I think the guy I hired read this first and I have photos that would make your skin crawl. Bottom line: he got me for $1900.00. Every single thing he painted had to be completely redone....that's when I discovered he did NOT use the colors I picked, he actually used leftover exterior paint from his mother's house! Because I have pets he said things needed to be sealed first and I did agree to that. What I did NOT agree to was using some kind of foul smelling gray stuff ON MY HARDWOOD FLOORS! THEN he painted them BLACK, telling me that all they were good for was covering over with laminate or carpet. He also dripped and tracked paint all over my ceramic tile floors. PLUS left a wet used paint roller in my garden window and had stuff piled in front so I didn't find it until it had dried. I have no idea how much that is going to cost to repair. Then he left without finishing (thank God) but left the "leftover" paint, uncovered, in the rain. Again, hid it so I didn't immediately find it. Obviously we will be going to court but I doubt if I see a penny from him.

Most painting companies, including our own, do not price our work on an hourly basis. We can work this way and do on complicated projects. But to give you a good idea of what the hourly rates tend to be, these range from $45-60 a man/hr. Then you have to factor in the cost of materials. This tends to range from 10-20% of the cost of the job depending on the level of quality.

Sanding not only feathers out chipped paint but also provides "tooth" for the next coat of paint. For glossy trim, use a sanding sponge rather than sandpaper. Sponges mold to the shape of the trim and last longer than paper. When applying latex over alkyd paint or when he is not sure of the original finish, Brian Doherty, a painter in Richmond, Virginia, follows the hand-sanding with liquid sandpaper to make sure the surface is completely deglossed to prevent incompatibility problems. "I've seen homes where latex was used on oil-painted trim, and the paint started to peel in less than a year," says Doherty.
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I was a painting contractor for many years and never asked for a deposit upfront. A good contractor should have great credit with his suppliers and an even better contract if the deal should go south before the job is done. Get to know your customer and explain how each paint covers so they understand fully before you have to apply 3 or 4 coats. If you didn't bid your job right and the client has already signed the contract then that is on you not the client. Yes I haven had to eat the difference but the client was happy and a return customer for years so I made up for it.
Keep in mind the perceived space of the room. Dark colors tend to make a room look smaller, while light colors open up the space. Test drive your color by investing in a quart-sized (or smaller) can of paint in the color you’re thinking of using before you buy a bigger (and more expensive) can. Paint a small portion of your wall and watch the color in different lights throughout the day so you don’t get stuck with a color that only looks how you want it to look in broad daylight. Stick with neutral colors if you’re planning to sell your home. Keep in mind that buyers want to be able to visualize their things in your home.
Paint won't bond to greasy or filthy surfaces, like kitchen walls above a stove, mudrooms where kids kick off their muddy boots and scuff the walls or the areas around light switches that get swatted at with dirty hands. "I always use a degreaser to clean grimy or greasy surfaces," a pro tells PM. "It cuts through almost anything you have on walls for better paint adhesion."
Rolling paint from a paint tray is a futile, messy proposition. Here's a faster, neater, better approach: Roll paint directly from a 5-gallon bucket using a paint grid. A paint grid is simply a rectangular, rigid metal or plastic screen that hooks onto the rim of the bucket. Fill the bucket about halfway with paint, then hang the grid inside the bucket. Dip the roller sleeve into the paint, and roll it against the grid to remove excess paint. It's that easy. At the end of the day, drop the grid into the bucket and snap on the lid
I had originally budgeted a lower amount for this project....painting had always been a DIY project in this home, so I didn't have a clue. Now that I'm older and less nimble, I decided to hire it out. Waldner's Handyman Services was very professional and worked with me to understand how costs were factored into my painting project. I am very satisfied with the finished result and will use them again for future jobs.